Reading on Olympus: The Lightning Thief
by abbzeh
Summary: Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Thalia and Grover are sent back in time to just before the events of The Lightning Thief to read some books with the gods.
1. Accidentally Vaporise My Algebra Teacher

_Author's note: Right, I know there are several stories like this out there, but this is basically done for fun. For those who're my regular readers for my 'Reading at Hogwarts' series, I haven't given up on those. I'm just taking a break whilst I get new ideas for it, so I'm doing this. A little side project, if you will. Plus, I've read all five of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians books this week, and I've gotten into them. Anyhow, hope this is all right! Oh, and this is set about a day before the Winter Solstice in the Lightning Thief, but Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Nico and Grover come from just after The Last Olympian._

_Disclaimer: I don't own this series; Rick Riordan does._

_Listening to: Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana_

Not for the first time, the peaceful tranquillity on Olympus was being broken into tiny pieces by a shouting match in the Hall of the Gods. The minor gods and goddesses didn't even bat an eyelid to the racket being caused, since it apparently happened on a regular basis, and they were far too used to it to care.

Inside, the powerful beings who were remaining silent were sitting on giant thrones were watching the two contenders with bored expressions. The only one who appeared to find any amusement out of it was Ares, the god of war. Hera only watched with a resigned expression, like she'd seen too many of these fights. Aphrodite didn't even glance up from filing her nails. Hades just observed his brothers with a sour look on his face.

'Oh, _please_! We all know Mother Rhea loved you more!' Poseidon yelled at Zeus.

'Mother loved all of us, as you know well!' Zeus glared at his older brother, eyes flashing dangerously.

'_You_ didn't have to become acquainted with the inside of dear old Father's stomach for years!'

'Oh, now you're just being dramatic,' Zeus grumbled.

'Oh, _I'm_ the dramatic one?' Poseidon snorted in amusement, raising his eyebrows. 'Who is it that feels a need to exit in lightning every time he leaves a room?'

'Stop it! The both of you!' Hera finally put in, glaring at her brother and husband. 'Honestly, the pair of you are behaving like a pair of _children_!'

Seeing her glare, both brothers wisely decided to shut their mouths, but they instead engaged in a silent glaring competition. Hades just sighed in immense annoyance as he looked at them.

Their attention was suddenly diverted when a loud _bang_ sounded through the room, and smoke drifted up from a particular place. As the smoke cleared, the gods became aware of five figures standing there; four humans, and a satyr. They looked around the place, their eyes scanning over the details and taking them in. They didn't, however, seem surprised to be here.

Zeus cleared his throat irritably, and the five looked at him.

'Who are you five?' he growled at them, his eyes narrowing. 'And how did you get here?'

One of the girls stepped forwards. She had black hair, stormy eyes and wore punk style clothes. She seemed oddly familiar to Zeus, and yet he couldn't figure out how. It was like the answer was on the tip of his tongue. The girl looked at Zeus with hardly any intimidation.

'Well,' she began casually, not taking her eyes off the god, 'we, as in my friends and I, have been sent from the future, for all of _you_ to read some books.' At the last part, she gestured at all of the gods sat around them. 'I imagine reading about the events will be better than actually living through them again.'

'You still haven't told us who you all are, child,' Zeus said irritably.

'I was getting to that,' the girl said with just as much irritation at being interrupted. 'As I was saying - ' she shot Zeus an annoyed glance, ' - we are all half-bloods, apart from Grover Underwood, who is the satyr. I'm Thalia Grace.'

Zeus gaped at her for a moment. This teenager was his daughter, the one he had turned into a tree to save her life?

Thalia seemed to guess what her father was thinking. 'Stuff happened,' she said easily. 'I won't say what, though. Wouldn't want to spoil things for you.'

This did nothing to improve Zeus's temper. 'And the rest of you?' he barked at the rest of the half-bloods. They all looked at each other for a moment, like they were silently conversing. The palest boy stepped forward.

'Nico Di Angelo,' he said casually. Hades stiffened slightly, and looked at his child without trying to draw too much attention to himself.

The other girl stepped forward beside Nico, brushing a strand of blonde hair out of her face. 'Annabeth Chase,' she said confidently. Athena showed no outward response, but she indeed knew who the girl was.

Finally, the last half-blood stood beside Annabeth and said casually, 'Percy Jackson.'

At that, Poseidon stiffened slightly and hoped nobody noticed his reaction. _This_ was his son, standing in the same room as him, looking utterly relaxed in the presence of the gods? Right now, his son was only twelve – he knew because he kept watch over him, even if he didn't speak to him. But this version, he looked around sixteen, and a lot more battle hardened. All five of them did, in fact.

'Anyway,' Annabeth continued, 'we have the books right here.' She slung the bag that had been over her shoulder onto the ground, and fished out some books. She glanced down at them, sifting through the titles before stopping at one, and putting the others back in the bag.

'What are those ones?' Athena asked, pointing at the ones in the bag, unable to help her curiosity.

'You'll find out,' Annabeth smiled mysteriously. 'First, we have to read this one. _Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief_. Or, as I like to call it, _That Time Seaweed Brain and I Went On A Spot of Travelling_.'

'Wouldn't that be the title for _all _of them, though?' Grover asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Not the fifth one,' Percy pointed out.

'Whatever,' Annabeth shrugged. 'Anyway, we're reading this now. Anyone want to start us off?'

Apollo was looking at the book like it was something foreign. 'We're reading a _book_?' he asked incredulously. 'A _book_?'

Artemis slapped him across the head. 'Yes,' she said simply, as though talking to a child and rolling her eyes.

Apollo considered it for a moment, then shrugged. 'Guess I'll read, then.'

Artemis rolled her eyes again. 'Do try not to hurt yourself, _dear_ brother.'

Apollo shot her a blinding grin. 'I'll do my best, sis.' He took the book from Annabeth, and turned to the first chapter. 'I Accidentally Vaporise My Pre-Algebra Teacher.'

'Oh, I remember this,' said Grover, beginning to grin. 'Fun times.'

'The good old days, G-Man,' Percy nodded.

**"Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

'Hardly any of us do,' Annabeth nodded sadly.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: **

'Percy?' Thalia asked, feigning surprise.

'Giving _advice_?' Nico gasped in mock shock.

**close this book right now. **

'I would if I could,' said Apollo sorrowfully, before continuing.

**Believe what ever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

'I don't think you could even manage that, Percy,' said Annabeth, grinning slightly at Percy.

'Your lack of faith hurts me,' Percy said in mock agony, clutching his chest.

'King of dramatics,' Thalia snorted.

'Hardly,' Percy shrugged nonchalantly. 'That's your dad's job,' he added in an undertone, so Zeus wouldn't hear and blast him off Olympus.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

'Hanging around with them also applies to this,' Grover muttered, looking pointedly at Percy and Annabeth.

'It's not our fault we happen to get into a few... situations,' Percy said defensively. Annabeth nodded.

'_Situations_,' Grover snorted in grim amusement. 'Yeah, if they're just _situations_ then I'm Chiron's long lost twin. I've had more nightmarish experiences since I met you two than I care to think of.'

Annabeth looked apologetic. 'Sorry?' she tried in a hopeful tone.

'It's okay,' Grover shrugged, smiling at them both.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. **

'Should I stop reading too?' Apollo asked hopefully.

Artemis looked like she wanted to smack her head against something. 'What did I ever do to deserve an eternity of having _him_ as a twin?' she muttered under her breath.

**You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they **_**sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

'Okay. You didn't warn us,' Hermes smirked.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

'_Perseus_!' Nico coughed under his breath, and Percy elbowed him in the stomach.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a ****few****months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

'Well,' Nico mused thoughtfully, looking at Percy with a smirk on his face.

'Yes,' said Thalia bluntly, grinning widely.

'Thanks,' said Percy dryly.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

'You agree with us,' Nico shrugged, snickering.

Percy looked at him, raising his eyebrows. 'Do you _want_ to be introduced to Mrs. O'Leary's kisses?' he asked sweetly.

Nico immediately shook his head, and Percy smirked.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

'Sounds like torture,' Hermes shuddered, Apollo nodding furiously in agreement. Athena glared at the both of them.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

Hermes and Apollo both grinned at Percy.

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

'Hopes that will be crushed, hopefully,' Dionysus commented absent-mindedly.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

'He sounds... familiar,' Zeus mused thoughtfully.

Dionysus scowled when he realised who it was, and wondered why Chiron was there.

**You wouldn't think he'd be cool, **

'Don't worry, I don't,' Dionysus promised.

**but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

'What a feat,' Annabeth rolled her eyes.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

'Ah, I'm willing to bet _that_ went well,' Thalia snickered.

**Boy, was I wrong.**

'I rest my case.'

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

The majority of the gods and all of the half-bloods began snickering in amusement.

'What were you aiming for?' Grover asked between breaths.

Percy shrugged. 'No idea. I don't even know how it happened.'

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. **

Poseidon couldn't help but snicker.

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

'All in all, so many ideas for us,' Hermes grinned at Apollo.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

'Yeah, you'll hold the sky before you'll be good,' Nico scoffed.

Percy and Annabeth both cleared their throats, raising their eyebrows, and Nico realised his mistake, his eyes going to the identical grey streaks in their hair.

'Right, yeah... that backfired,' he muttered.

'Yeah, it did,' Thalia agreed dryly.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover**

'Never liked her,' Percy growled in annoyance.

**in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

'Oh, poor dear,' Demeter cooed, and Grover blushed.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

'Great job being undercover,' laughed Thalia.

'Enchiladas are good,' Grover defended, going red again.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death **

Poseidon looked briefly murderous.

**by in-school suspension **

The sea god promptly calmed down.

**if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

'But that's what makes life so fun! The mildly entertaining things!' said Hermes, his eyes wide.

'My headteacher didn't see it that way,' Percy sighed in a tragic voice.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

'Please do,' Ares all but pleaded. 'We _need_ some action around here!'

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

Aphrodite wrinkled her nose.

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

'Good,' Annabeth nodded, smiling at Grover.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

'Probably me,' Percy shrugged.

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

'Still wish I had, actually.'

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

'I really do miss those things the mortals used to make of us,' sighed Hermes.

'I don't,' Aphrodite sniffed. 'They could never get my nose right on those things.'

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele, **_**for a girl about our age.**

'Tragic, how some lives are ended so early,' said Hera softly.

**He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

'I think you have an enemy, dear,' said Demeter, frowning slightly.

Percy nodded in agreement. 'I have to agree with you completely,' he said sincerely.

Poseidon frowned, not liking the sound of that.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, **

'Sweet,' Ares nodded in approval.

**even though she was fifty years old. **

'Not sweet,' he rectified quickly.

**She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

'Did you have anything to do with it?' Annabeth asked Percy, raising an eyebrow.

'Surprisingly, no,' Percy shrugged.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. **

Again, Poseidon glared inwardly.

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. **

'Of course. Somebody makes you erase workbooks for a month, and you think that they're not human?' Annabeth asked in dry amusement.

**He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

Grover blushed slightly.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, **

'Disrespectful,' Athena muttered.

**and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up**_**?"**

'She's a brat,' Percy muttered.

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

Hestia shuddered.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.**

**"And he **_**did **_**this because …"**

'Because he's a jerk,' Grover muttered under his breath.

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

'God?' Zeus thundered, looking absolutely disgusted.

'So I made a mistake. I was under pressure,' Percy said defensively.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

'Told you Mother loved you more,' Poseidon glared at Zeus.

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

'Not a pleasant experience,' Hades commented, grimacing.

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

'You didn't have to live in there, girl,' Hera muttered.

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

'Of course we did,' Apollo grinned, interrupting himself again.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

'You never know when you might be held at gunpoint, and told to explain why Kronos ate his kids,' said Nico matter-of-factly.

Thalia glanced at her younger cousin, raising her eyebrows. Nico shrugged at her.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

Grover sniggered.

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

'Bloody horse-man,' Dionysus muttered under his breath.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, **

'Which sounds _lovely_,' Hermes wrinkled her nose.

**which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. **

'We had troubled childhoods,' Demeter smiled grimly.

**The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

'They always act like that,' Artemis grumbled to herself.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

'Well, he _has_ seen everything, from battles to Party Ponies,' Annabeth shrugged.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

'That's the most I have to say about school as well,' Hermes nodded in understanding.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. **

Percy nodded. 'Can't deny that. Probably would've died long before now otherwise.'

Grover and the other demigods nodded in agreement at that, which made Poseidon slightly nervous.

**I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

'He's your teacher. He should,' said Athena, nodding in approval.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever ****lived**_**,**_**and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

'That's a fairly good way of learning,' Athena mused.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be **_**as good; **_**he expected me to be **_**better. **_**And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

'English is just a nightmare to read,' Thalia agreed.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

'He probably was. That's the curse that comes with immortality. Eventually, every mortal person you've ever loved will fade into dust,' said Hestia sadly from her hearth.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city.**

Almost everyone looked at Zeus, who just glared at them as if to say _what?_

**I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

**We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

'What are you two fighting over now?' Hera groaned, looking from Zeus to Poseidon and looking as though she wanted to bang their heads together.

Zeus shrugged whilst Poseidon went, 'The usual, I'd presume.'

'I doubt this is over who Mother loved best, brother,' said Hestia softly, looking at Poseidon.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. **

'Mortals,' sneered Ares.

**Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. **

Artemis and Athena glared.

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

'Favouritism,' muttered Grover in disgust.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that **_**school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

'I'd gathered that, Seaweed Brain,' Annabeth smirked.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

'Wow, that's deep, Grover,' Thalia laughed at Grover, who went red again.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home.**

'You shouldn't do that. You have school,' said Athena sternly.

**She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

'Aww,' cooed Demeter, smiling softly.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. **

Dionysus shuddered at the mention of celery. How the horse-man could eat it, he had no idea.

**A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

Aphrodite looked like she was ready to throw up. 'If she tried that on me, she'd be history just like _that_.' She snapped her fingers loudly on the last word.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

'Sounds... attractive,' said Ares sarcastically.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

Zeus looked suspiciously at Poseidon, who was trying his best to look innocent.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

'Poseidon,' Zeus growled in a dangerous voice, his eyes flashing again.

Poseidon turned to look at his brother. 'Yes?' he asked in an innocent tone that fooled no one.

'You had another half-blood child,' said Zeus accusingly, glaring. 'You broke the Oath!'

'So?' Poseidon asked defiantly, glaring right back at his brother. 'I know I did, and I don't regret it! And who are you to speak to me of breaking the Oath? You broke it first!'

'It's almost ironic that Hades is the one who kept to the Oath,' Athena said musingly.

'At least I kept my word,' Hades grumbled, glaring at his brothers. 'Unlike _some_.'

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. **

'She probably had,' Grover grimaced.

**"Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

'Don't say that!' Apollo groaned.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

Hermes nodded in agreement.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I **_**pushed her."**

'Thanks for trying, G-Man,' Percy grinned at his best friend.

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

'Friendship,' Hestia smiled softly.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—**_**will**_—**stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now**_**."**

'She's just creepy,' Thalia muttered with distaste.

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

Everyone who had ever seen that stare shivered slightly.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

Poseidon tried not to look panicked. Mrs. Dodds wasn't human, clearly.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

'It's really annoying when that happens,' groaned Nico. Percy, Thalia and Annabeth nodded grimly in agreement.

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

'Don't,' Poseidon couldn't help but mutter under his breath, shooting a glance at Percy.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

'Fantastic,' Poseidon muttered.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

Nico called Mrs. Dodds something under his breath that made Thalia slap him.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

Poseidon proceeded to glare suspiciously at Hades, suspecting what Mrs. Dodds really was.

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

'She probably did,' Percy mused.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

'Percy excels at that,' Annabeth said jokingly, grinning at Percy.

'What can I say?' Percy asked innocently, sighing. 'It's my talent, ticking off gods and monsters and the one-who-shall-not-be-named.'

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

'Get away with what?' Hermes asked.

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

'You just keep believing that,' said Nico.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

Poseidon turned to look at Zeus, who shrugged.

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

'Oh, that's comforting,' Poseidon muttered grimly.

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

Hermes and Apollo grinned widely at Percy.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer **_**from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

'We feel your pain, little cousin,' said Hermes dramatically.

'Oh, the pain of being forced to read a book!' cried Apollo. Artemis sighed and whacked him over the head again.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

'Funny. I'm still here,' Percy mused dryly.

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

Poseidon looked far from pleased. In fact, he looked murderous.

'You sent a Fury after him?' he said to Hades, sounding like he was attempting to stay calm.

'Technically, I haven't done it yet,' said Hades carelessly, stifling a yawn. 'It's the future, brother.'

'That's the only thing that's keeping me from attacking you,' Poseidon growled.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

'What's he going to do? Mark papers in front of her?' Hermes muttered.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

'Oh right. _That_ pen,' Hermes corrected himself, feeling slightly stupid.

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

Poseidon glanced at Percy to make sure he was all right.

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—**

'Riptide,' Percy smiled, thinking of the sword that had saved his life so many times.

**Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

'Wimp,' Ares muttered. Unfortunately, he was overhead by the sea god, and was soon soaked in a fair amount of the ocean.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

'She has issues,' Nico shook his head slowly.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

'You killed a Fury on your first try?' Athena asked sharply, and Percy nodded.

'It would've been easier if he'd eaten more cereal,' Demeter noted, looking at Percy. 'My daughter should eat more cereal as well, but she can't, because a certain _brother_ of mine kidnapped her and made her live in the horrible dark Underworld!' She glared across the room at Hades.

Hades sighed, like he'd had this conversation a thousand and one times. 'I've told you, Demeter, if you want to visit your daughter, you can, and you'd be a guest in my house.'

'You call that dump a _house_?' Demeter snorted in derision.

'Demeter,' Hades growled, but Demeter was on a roll now, and so continued ranting.

'Why she had to marry _you_, I have no idea. She could have married that lovely god of doctors, but _nooo_. She went and ate the pomegranate, and you kidnapped her!'

'DEMETER!'

'Quiet, the both of you!' Zeus shouted above the two bickering immortals, glaring them both into silence.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

'Which they might be,' said Nico cheerfully.

'Thanks for that,' said Percy dryly.

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. **

'I was just ever so slightly creeped out by that,' Percy commented.

**Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

'Ah, magic mushrooms,' Hermes sighed.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

'Unfortunately, no,' sighed Hera.

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, **

Quite a few snickered at the reminder.

**grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our **_**teacher. **_**Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

'Sometimes, I hate the Mist,' Percy grumbled to himself. 'Confuses me.'

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

'Grover, you're a terrible liar,' Percy said gently.

'So you've said before,' Grover noted.

'It's true,' Annabeth smiled apologetically.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

'Somebody's mad,' Poseidon said lightly, looking at Zeus.

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

'That ain't no writing pen,' Nico sniggered.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

'And that's not going to confuse the kid at all,' Dionysus scoffed.

'Finally, I've reached the end of the chapter!' Apollo heaved a sigh of long suffering, causing Artemis to roll her eyes.

'Give it here, then,' Hermes sighed. 'Might as well get it over with, as well.'

Apollo gladly handed the book over, seeming to be glad to get rid of a book in general. Hermes sighed again and turned to the next chapter.

_Author's note: So, that was it. Was it okay? And please review!_

_Listening to: The Great Beyond – R.E.M_


	2. Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death

_Author's note: Chapter two:} I would have had this up sooner, but for the distractions and the fact that I got food poisoning. Hope this is okay._

_Listening to: Wake Me Up When September Ends – Green Day_

Before Hermes could begin to read his chapter, Zeus interrupted. Rather rudely, Hermes thought to himself.

'Before we continue,' Zeus growled at the four half-bloods, 'I want to know who your immortal parent is.'

They all glanced at each other again, before Annabeth spoke up. 'My mother is Lady Athena,' she said, looking over at where Athena was sitting and smiled slightly.

'I assume you know who I am,' Thalia yawned, grinning at Zeus. 'In case you haven't been listening, the king of drama is my dad; you know, the one who exits in lightning.'

Zeus glowered at her but said nothing, considering she _was_ his daughter.

Nico was muttering something to Percy. Percy sighed, and pulled him forward by the arm. 'Obviously, we all know who I am, since the cat's out of the bag.' He mock saluted at Poseidon, smirking. 'But, in case you haven't been paying attention, my dad is the sea god, and the reason why I get nagged by fish and horses wherever I go.' He pushed Nico slightly ahead of him. 'Old sunshine here is the son of Hades.'

Zeus turned to Hades. 'You broke the Oath as well?' His voice suggested that he was forcing himself to remain calm, but his eyes were flashing.

Hades sighed. 'I did not. Nico and his sister, Bianca, were born before the Oath was made. When their mother died, I placed them in the Lotus Casino in Vegas. Technically, Nico there is over seventy years old.' Hades looked at Nico. 'Where is your sister, by the way?' he asked.

Nico's eyes hardened slightly. 'She's gone,' he replied flatly, like he wasn't trying to show any pain.

A flicker of pain crossed Hades's face before it was replaced by the stoic mask. 'When?' he asked in a softer voice.

'Two years ago,' said Nico stiffly. 'You'll probably read about it.'

Hades nodded, looking pensive.

'Hermes, read,' Zeus commanded after a moment's silence for the passing of Hades's daughter.

Hermes quickly found the right page, and read out, 'Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death.'

'Life threatening?' Poseidon asked, looking at Percy.

Percy looked thoughtful for a moment. 'Depends on how you look at it,' he finally replied, shrugging.

Poseidon groaned.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

'Apart from the painful ones,' Grover grumbled.

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. **

'Sorry about lying to you,' Grover winced, and Percy patted his shoulder, letting him know silently that it was all right.

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

'The Mist,' Athena nodded.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

'That's because you _are_ psycho,' Nico smirked.

'You know, I could probably summon a shark and land it on top of you, jaws open,' Percy said musingly.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

'You're just a terrible liar,' Thalia sighed.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. **

'Smooth, goat boy,' Annabeth laughed.

**But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something **_**had **_**happened at the museum.**

'Yeah, the Lord of the Dead sent his minions after you,' Thalia sighed. At the reminder, Poseidon glowered at Hades again.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

'Poor boy,' Hera murmured softly.

**The freak weather continued, **

Poseidon started whistling innocently to himself, and Zeus found part of his throne suddenly very interesting.

**which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. **

Apollo raised an eyebrow at Zeus, who glowered at him until the sun god looked away.

**A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. **

'It sounds like you and Kelp Head are trying to outdo each other,' Athena said to Zeus, almost musingly.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. **

'Your father feels like that at certain times of the year, dear,' said Demeter. 'That's why some countries get flooded.'

**My grades slipped from D's to F's.**

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

'Only because I won those fights,' Percy mutterd.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

Apollo, Hermes and Nico were grinning at Percy widely, whilst Annabeth and Athena were shaking their heads. Although, Annabeth was shaking her head more in exasperation and resignation.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

Ares muttered something that sounded suspiciously like _wimp__, _but he shut his mouth when he saw the look that Hera was giving him.

**I wanted to be with my mom **

'So sweet,' Hera murmured.

**in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

A low growl sounded across the room, and people turned towards the source of the interruption. Poseidon was glaring across the room, his eyes flashing.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view** **of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. **

'I never took you as a nature person, Fish Boy,' Thalia smirked at her cousin.

'Well, you'd know all about nature, wouldn't you Pinecone Face?' Percy retorted teasingly.

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

'Speak for yourself,' Grover grumbled half-heartedly, although his eyes were laughing.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

'Whatever would I do without you?'

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

'Misguided faith,' Annabeth teased, smirking at Percy.

'Your taunts hurt me, Wise Girl!' Percy mock gasped, his hand over his heart.

'Surely you're used to it by now, Seaweed Brain?'

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

'I'm surprised you studied for _anything_,' Athena muttered under her breath.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the **_**Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology **_**across my dorm room.**

'Temper, temper,' Nico said tauntingly, wagging a finger.

'How hypocritical of you, Corpse Boy,' Percy snorted.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

'Oh, there's a difference,' Hades grumbled, glowering at the floor. 'One is a far-too-calm centaur. The other is a severely irritating person in my employment who's become impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits and spends his time bugging me for a pay rise.'

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. **

Athena opened her mouth, perhaps to explain what they meant, but she was cut off before she'd even began to speak by Poseidon.

'Oh, be quiet Owl Eyes,' Poseidon yawned. 'Nobody really cares what they mean.'

Athena glared at her uncle.

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Hermes met Apollo's eyes as he was reading, and they both smirked.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. **_**I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**_

'Funny, because I expect nothing,' Athena muttered under her breath.

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. **

'Ah, predicting your own exam results,' Apollo sighed, grinning. Hermes smirked, but continued to read.

**I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

_**"...**_ **worried about Percy, sir."**

'Yes, we're all worried about Percy,' Nico stated solemnly. 'I mean, just _look_ at everything that's happened.'

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, **

'Liar,' Nico snickered.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the **_**school**_**! **

Poseidon glared at Hades again at the reminder.

**Now that we know for sure, and **_**they **_**know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

'Boys seldom mature beyond the mentality of a three year old,' Artemis sniffed.

As if to prove her point, Apollo randomly waved to Hermes, who promptly returned the wave with the same insane smile on his face. Artemis sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, wondering, not for the first time in a few thousand years, what she had done to deserve Apollo as a twin.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line—**_**"**_

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

'That went well,' Percy commented airily.

**"Sir, he **_**saw **_**her... "**

'_Nasty_!' shuddered Apollo.

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

'Or not...' Grover muttered.

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again."**

Zeus glowered as he remembered what had happened to his daughter, whilst she was with Grover, how he'd been forced to turn her into a tree...

**Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. **

'Yes, you should have done,' Poseidon agreed.

**Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

'Easier said than done, I assure you,' Grover groaned.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

'That's clever,' Athena commented dryly.

'You'd know all about being clever, wouldn't you? Bloody know-it-all,' Poseidon muttered.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

'How awkward would it have been if someone had walked in on Chiron when he wasn't in the wheelchair?' Nico asked nobody in particular.

'Very,' Thalia answered him.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow **_**clop-clop-clop, **_**like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

'Apparently, Zeus's and Poseidon's haven't been, either,' Apollo frowned.

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

'Don't remind him! Hermes howled, interrupting himself yet again.

**"Don't remind me."**

'There! You see?'

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

'I wouldn't have been able to study Latin all night,' Grover grimaced.

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

'Liar.'

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression,**

'Which is completely pointless, because satyrs can read expressions anyway,' said Annabeth cheerfully.

'_Thank you_, Wise Girl,' Percy sighed, rolling his eyes.

'Any time, Seaweed Brain.'

**and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

'You'd never be that lucky,' said Annabeth matter-of-factly.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

'But of course, I wouldn't actually know that because everyone insists on keeping things from me,' Percy grumbled.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

Hermes stopped reading for a moment as his eyes widened. 'Three...' he began to say, but trailed off in shock.

'… hours?' Apollo finished, looking horrified.

Nico was shaking his head in sympathy. 'You poor, poor person.'

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

'No offence, Chiron, but I think he wants to be _away_ from there,' said Nico casually.

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. **

'Why?' Apollo asked, raising his eyebrows.

'They just did,' Percy replied, suppressing a sigh. 'Plus I was used to teachers hating me.'

**Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

Poseidon glared at nothing in particular again.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

'Only a matter of time before good old Corpse Breath's dad's minions found out where you were,' said Thalia cheerfully.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

'Chiron really needs to work on the way he delivers things,' Hestia frowned slightly.

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. **

'We know that,' Nico smirked. 'He talks to fish!'

'Says the one who talks to skeletons,' Percy retorted, snickering.

**That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

'Good idea. Get away from teachers,' Apollo nodded, shuddering.

'They're too strict,' Hermes agreed, shivering.

'Ah yes, responsibility is a terrible thing, isn't it?' Artemis asked, raising her eyebrow.

'It really is, sis,' Apollo nodded, completely missing his sister's sarcastic tone.

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. **

'If it was a luxury cruise, I'd do that,' Aphrodite smiled.

**They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were **_**rich **_**juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

'Yeah, right. I would hardly call the King of the Seas a _nobody_,' Nico snorted. 'Or myself, for that matter,' he added as an afterthought.

'Sally isn't a nobody,' said Poseidon quietly, looking thoughtful. 'She's far from it.'

Aphrodite nearly squealed when she felt the emotions in the room, but she managed to keep her mouth shut. Nevertheless, she still grinned.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

Poseidon muttered something under his breath, whilst Hera frowned.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, **

'What a coincidence,' Annabeth smirked at the satyr. Grover blushed slightly pink.

**so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

'To be honest, I _was_ expecting something to happen,' Grover admitted sheepishly.

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

'Nope, looking for the Slightly Irritable Ones,' said Apollo cheerfully, wearing a stupid grin. Seeing his expression, Artemis proceeded to roll her eyes.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

Thalia raised an eyebrow at Grover, who promptly blushed.

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much **_**did **_**you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. **

'Just enough to know I'm in danger. Why?' Nico snorted.

**What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

Grover just went full out red whilst Thalia proceeded to face-palm.

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

'You're a _terrible_ liar,' Hermes said to Grover, his eyes wide.

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

Hermes and Apollo nodded in agreement.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, **

'You really are mean to them, Dionysus,' Demeter frowned at the wine god.

'Yes, I believe I sent you down there to help them, or something,' Zeus said, frowning as well.

'You didn't say anything about the handwriting, Father,' Dionysus pointed out. 'Although, if you are unhappy, perhaps you should think up another sentence?'

'You just keep dreaming on your wishful thinking, Dionysus. You should have thought about that _before_ you tried it on with that wood nymph.'

**but I finally made out something like:**

_**Grover Underwood**_

_**Keeper**_

_**Half-Blood Hill**_

_**Long Island, New York**_

_**(800)**_ _**009-0009**_

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

'Yeah, sorry about that,' Grover apologized, looking sheepish again.

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

'Sorry, G-Man,' Percy apologized this time.

Grover just waved it off, not fazed by it.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

'Don't think I haven't forgotten what happened when you had to protect my daughter, satyr,' Zeus growled at Grover, who immediately shook his head.

'O-of course not, s-sir.'

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

'Worrying about your friends! How sweet!' Aphrodite cooed, Demeter nodding in agreement.

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended **_**me.**_

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

'Oh, you know, minions from the Underworld. The usual,' Nico shrugged.

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

Aphrodite looked sickened, her skin taking on a pale green tint.

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. **

'Better than staying on the bus with that smell,' grimaced Hephaestus.

**Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

'That's just... random. Who puts a fruit stand on a random country lane?' Apollo couldn't help but ask.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice**_**. **_**There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

'Socks... socks...' Athena was muttering to herself, her brow furrowed in concentration.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

'The Fates,' Athena muttered. Poseidon heard her, and he suddenly went paler.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

'Attractive,' grimaced Aphrodite.

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

'Oh no,' Poseidon breathed, looking panicked.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

'Please don't be,' Poseidon begged.

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

'Not the time for joking,' said Annabeth, managing to keep her voice steady.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.**

'_No, no, no_,' everyone could hear Poseidon muttering across the room.

**I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

'Yes, get on the bus!'

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. **

Everyone could still hear Poseidon's mutterings.

**The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that **_**snip **_**across four lanes of traffic.**

'No, no, no,' Poseidon said, looking paler than he had been before. He looked like he was on the edge of hyperventilating, and kept looking at Percy to assure himself that Percy was still alive.

'Kelp Head, he is obviously _not_ dead,' Athena sighed in an effort to calm Poseidon down.

'I'm allowed to worry!' Poseidon snapped back at her.

Percy, however, was thinking about how that lifeline was never his... how it was Luke's lifeline that they had cut... Annabeth caught his eye and they shared a similar thought: the Fates were cruel to those who didn't deserve it.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. **

'Bad bus! Bad breaking down bus!' Apollo scolded an imaginary bus.

**"Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

'That doesn't sound good,' Nico murmured.

'Thank you for stating the obvious, Death Breath,' Thalia sighed. Nico mock glared at her.

'I'm just saying!' he said defensively.

'Not a good time to be _just saying__,_ genius,' Thalia hissed in his ear, subtly gesturing over at Poseidon, who looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack.

'Oh. Right,' Nico concluded sheepishly.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

'Oh, you know. You've got monsters out to get you and you're the son of a Greek god. Nothing much,' Nico shrugged.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

'Worse, much worse,' Poseidon muttered, glancing at Percy again.

Percy nodded in agreement as somebody else came to mind, someone who the Fates had been cruel to also... Calypso, on her tiny island away from everywhere, forever to be alone and to continue to be heartbroken.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. **

'That they are,' Hades nodded.

**He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

'Which isn't good,' Apollo grimaced.

'_Which_ we already know isn't good,' Artemis sighed in annoyance.

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

'It is a big deal,' Zeus nodded.

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

'It wasn't your fault,' said Thalia kindly, patting Grover's shoulder.

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

'Something that isn't even his fault,' said Thalia sternly, looking at Grover.

Zeus looked like he was going to say otherwise, but he decided against it when he saw the look on his daughter's face.

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

'Before you took off,' Grover grumbled half-heartedly.

'Sorry,' Percy apologized.

Grover shrugged it off good-naturedly.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

The gods couldn't help but shiver at that. Poseidon once again looked panicked, and the demigods and Grover all exchanged a glance, thinking of the life they had lost.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

'I don't want flowers, Grover,' Percy said in mock disgust.

'Tough. You're getting them, Seaweed Brain,' said Thalia matter-of-factly, as if that settled everything.

'Yeah, you are,' Annabeth agreed. 'Although, don't you dare put me through that hell again,' she added in a lower voice. She and Percy locked eyes, and he knew that she was thinking of the time Annabeth had spent believing he was dead, after the volcano eruption.

'Anyway, that chapter's finished,' Hermes announced, and he looked around for who would read next.

'I suppose I will, then,' Athena sighed, and Hermes handed her the book. Athena then turned to the next chapter.

_Author's note: So, that was it, hope it was okay and please review!_

_Listening to: I'd Come For You – Nickelback _


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